Jan. 10: Metropole

Polly says: Though the setting and the art everywhere (including on the floor on the way to the bathroom) are thrilling, it's the outright eatability of the food that will surely bring people back. Chef Michael Paley creates imaginative dishes that use foodstuffs you may never have had in combinations you may never have thought of. Still, they're each essentially simple.

Jan. 24: Alfio's Buon Cibo

Polly says: I can see Alfio's as a good place for a low-key meal on a fairly frequent basis: it's not a scene, not horribly expensive and there is certainly something on the menu for everyone, with lots of variety for return visits.

Jan. 31: M

Polly says: The welcome was warm, (once we asked for a table not right next to the door) and the food is the kind of elemental, soulful preparations that have comforted people by the fireside for thousands of years of cold nights.

Feb. 7: Quan Hapa

Polly says: Like any restaurant with all small plates, it can can be hard to know how to put together a satisfying meal, and some of the food is challenging. But many of these dishes pack the kind of flavor you'll find yourself craving later. I can imagine, say, driving somewhere, being reminded of the duck confit ramen or kajiki poke and turning my car around to head for 13th and Vine.

Feb. 14: Bouquet

Polly says: The plates are more beautifully arranged, the composition of the dishes shows originality, but also a respect for fresh, local food. There is a strong touch of Kentucky in the dishes, along with classic technique and a thoroughly modern understanding of how flavors can go together.

Feb. 22: Kaze

Polly says: The ramen, in a complex broth, is so delicious, its flavor deep as a well, that it would be plain stupid not to drink every drop. And just about everything at Kaze was as delicious as that. Chef Hideki Harada, who owns the restaurant with Embers' Jon Zipperstein, draws on basic, relatable elements of one of the world's most sophisticated cuisines to create peak taste experiences for modern foodies.

Feb. 27: Wine Guy Bistro

Polly says: While the menu has an amiable quality that makes this a good choice if, say, you have a group of people who can't quite agree on where to eat, none of it is particularly outstanding or creative. On the other hand, I still like their wine format, which combines a retail store, a wine bar and several wine flight choices.

March 8: Barresi's Italian

Polly says: The menu has been edited and streamlined, healthier dishes and entree salads included, and a cozy wine bar, cocktails and a menu of Italian "tapas" added. Trust me, it's nothing radical. The menu still is what I'd call upscale (quite upscale by the prices) Italian comfort food. Not spaghetti and meatballs so much as salmon in lobster cream sauce or sauteed artichoke hearts.

March 14: Incline Public House

Polly says: This is the kind of restaurant that would have been hard to envision more than 10 years ago. Then, "casual" meant straight from freezer to fryer. It still does in many places. But here, as at quite a few other casual joints popping up around town, a seriousness of culinary intent is applied to what is usually cheap and quick.

March 21: Seasons 52

Polly says: The menu has some verve. The idea is that it's changed four times a year, and there are always weekly specials, and nothing is over 574 calories, which is a commendable standard. It all seems very up-to-date. But on the plate, it was uninspired, and though competently cooked, nothing was of the highest quality.

April 4: DiStasi's

Polly says: I imagine residents will appreciate it, but it's not priced to visit several times a week, so it will have to be a destination restaurant. If the cooks and servers keep up what they're doing, and improve in a few places, I can easily imagine people typing 400 Wyoming Ave. into their GPS and online map programs. They'll find an Italian restaurant offering classic Italian main courses, stamped with its own personality.

April 11: Zula

Polly says: Zula's menu doesn't limit you to a typical appetizer-entree-dessert meal, though you can certainly bend it to that experience if you like. Instead, dishes come out when they're ready, many beg to be shared, and there is nothing to stop you from ordering more. All are inspired by the sunny carefree cooking of the world around the Mediterranean sea.

April 18: El Coyote

Polly says: The meat and carbohydrate-heavy menu at El Coyote is as dated as a mullet when compared to the much fresher/more authentic/more creative cuisine available at, say, Nada, across the street, or Chipotle or Taqueria Mercado. ... That said, I can see the benefit of a restaurant like this to add to the range of dining choices Downtown. It's also for you if you like a lot of food for the money.

April 25: Jack Binion's Steak

Polly says: Jack Binion's Steak is there for the big splurge. If you treat yourself to a steak dinner with a cocktail, a glass of wine and a tip you have easily spent $90 and could spend much more. No big deal in the win-some-lose-some world of "gaming."

May 2: Yard House

Polly says: The menu is as wide-ranging as the beer list. There are burgers, sandwiches, salads and full-on dinner entrees like steak and seafood, with a preponderance of Mexican and Asian flavors. It's good quality food, better than most casual chain restaurants.

May 9: Sotto

Polly says: A plate of food here -- served unadorned, with no garnish, no plate architecture, often no more than a couple of ingredients put together -- speaks very quietly. If you focus your attention on it when you eat, then it speaks up for itself quite eloquently. So whisper it from the rooftops: everyone should make time to walk down the stairs to Sotto.

May 23: Stained

Polly says: It's a beautiful restaurant with the charm of a more handcrafted time. Mounted along the windows to the street are stained glass windows in glowing colors of green and amber. From the same Middletown Baptist church came the antique light fixtures. A small bar at one end was built from the church's pipe organ and pews. New, curving banquettes are in a line down the middle. The stained glass centerpiece was made by the Riordan studio in Cincinnati in 1885.

May 30: Walt's Hitching Post

Polly says: The menu still includes items from the old Walt's and has generally old-fashioned choices, with ribs, smoked chicken, fried chicken, chicken livers and hot slaw. But everything's been redecorated. The horse art includes some beautiful contemporary paintings. It's all cleaned up and brand-new. There are new chairs, new plates and steak knives with a "W" monogram. The food is carefully made, with real ingredients, and the service is on the ball.

June 6: The Rookwood

Polly says: The food is casual; the menu has room to grow – it may not be what most people think of as a four-star restaurant. But a smallish, casual menu with small plates and burgers is a newer way of eating that can be as serious as an old-school book-length menu. That's what the team at Rookwood has set out to do and they are doing it with style.

June 13: Yat ka Mein

Polly says: Ordering from a Chinese menu is like throwing a dart: You can try only about 3 percent of what's on offer, but I made a good stab at it. Not everything was great, but several of the noodle dishes are good enough to make this a destination restaurant, especially if you share my craving for noodles with a little of the smoky flavor of a wok and the addictive flavors of soy, sesame, ginger and garlic.

June 20: Boca

Polly says: If there really were aristocrats who once owned this mansion, they'd be happy with the food. It has the same grafting of new to traditional, the defining theme being absolutely perfect execution from Executive Chef Jeremy Lieb and Chef de Cuisine Jim Ghory's kitchen.

July 11: Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville

Polly says: Let's just say it's a little more enthusiasm than I would show, but the combination of Buffett's good-time music in an atmosphere that re-creates a beach vacation with margaritas, beer, beach balls, Hawaiian shirts and more margaritas is an undeniably fun package.

July 18: Main Bite

Polly says: Margie Potts is the chef and owner, and the food she serves at her charming new place isn't trendy or researched or carefully themed. It's just fresh food put together with some good ideas by a good cook – food you might make yourself if you spent a little time on it.

Aug. 1: La Hiro

Polly says: The lovely small restaurant La Hiro Sushi and Sweets in Florence covers the range of Japanese food, from very traditional to this natural "fusion" cuisine. So if you see spaghetti with ketchup sauce, hamburger steak or fried Camembert cheese on their menu, don't think that the restaurant is serving Westernized Japanese food. It's actually Japanese-ized Western food. And, all together, it's delicious.

Aug. 8: Red Roost Tavern

Polly says: Just one wall is covered in what looks like aged barn wood – emphasizing the new rustic, local and farm-to-table theme. ... Overall, the food wasn't stamped with a bold personality, but we enjoyed most of everything we had. I think anyone staying at the Hyatt from out of town would gain a good feeling for Cincinnati and Midwestern food, though if they wanted to see what was really popping on the restaurant scene, they'd have to leave the hotel.

Aug. 22: Fifty West

Polly says: It's great that they did not make an automatic connection between "beer" and the usual "beer food." You can get a pretzel with cheese dip, but there are no deep-fried snacks or chicken wings. It's casual food, presented simply, but there's good culinary thinking and execution from chef John Tomain behind it.

Aug. 29: Rail House

Polly says: The menu includes a few originals, too, but most of it is made up of cover versions of dishes you know well. There's bourbon salmon and hamburgers; tuna tacos and filets with bleu cheese; spinach artichoke dip and gourmet mac and cheese. I found some good and some mediocre dishes on their menu, and one stellar choice in the burger.

Sept. 5: Wahill

Polly says: The menu is in almost complete contrast to the setting: It's modern food that starts with farm-raised ingredients, but is cooked in step with contemporary restaurant trends. It felt a little more at home on the patio on a perfect summer night.

Sept. 12: Swampwater

Polly says: SwampWater Grill does it all pretty well -- not spectacularly, but the chef has the basic understanding some seem to lack: that gumbo is not a tomato soup, that jambalaya is a rice dish with the ingredients cooked in, not on top of it, that red beans should be cooked down with plenty of meat.

Sept. 19: Capital Grille

Polly says: Capital Grille follows through with the stuff that matters: aged beef, big shrimp and an impressive wine list. It's a pretty reasonable facsimile of a traditional steakhouse, though they don't get it 100 percent.

Sept. 26: Bronte

Polly says: From the modern bent-wood light fixtures to the nicely chosen combinations of muted colors and the artwork of other famous bookstores around the world, the refurbished Bistro promises an interesting, tasteful experience. Unfortunately, the food is pretty ordinary. The blurbs on the menu promised rather more than was delivered on the plate.

Oct. 10: Lavomatic

Polly says: Though the most expensive dish is $23 (for scallops), the menu demonstrates fine-dining ambitions. In fact, it's a little showy. There are descriptions with so many moving parts that the only reaction is skepticism. Saffron citrus Buffalo sauce? Would that even work? Some of the dishes do, beautifully. Some don't, either because the conception is just too much or some because basic cooking rules aren't followed.

Oct. 31: Sichuan Chili

Polly says: I've never experienced as strong a Sichuan pepper rush as I did from my first bite of bo-bo beef at Sichuan Chili, a new Chinese restaurant in Evendale. The dish is skinny strips of beef and chunks of cucumber stir-fried with some crazy amount of the peppercorn as well as regular red chili peppers that have their own special effect on your mouth.

Nov. 7: Nicola's

Polly says: Most of the dishes on Nicola's menu are not simple. Chef Joel Molloy's dishes have many elements, are plated in a modern artistic style and he uses some of the techniques that the mad-scientist chefs of today like to play around with. But he still honors Italian ingredients and flavors – the essence of the elements in each dish come through, along with an occasional bit that puzzles or fascinates.

Nov. 21: Ruth's Parkside Café

Polly says: Ruth's is not Mullane's, but it is its descendant. Many of the same dishes are on the menu, most of the same simple construction as the saute: red beans and rice, a pasta with an herb tomato sauce, grilled bagel sandwiches. These dishes have happy, warm associations for lots of people, and though you can't go home again, I think the old regulars will be pleased with Ruth's. What about people who never entered Mullane's and don't view it through a nostalgic filter? They'll find a comfortable, friendly place that feels neighborhoody but welcoming.

Nov. 29: Nuvo at Greenup

Polly says: In a couple of pretty black and white dining rooms in the old building, it offers only a six-course tasting menu. It comes in small portions with all the tricks of the 21st century chef in use: powders and salts and foams. It's a style of cooking that I have experienced as more art than meal, more about the ingenuity of the chef than the diner, driven more by style and look than taste.